A case study analysis of 2001 House Bill 656

Abstract

The Education Reform Act of 2001 is noted for the tight retention policy that ended social promotion. This study used the Kingdon (2003) model of merging the streams of problem, policy, and politics to promote an agenda. A historical case study based on those three streams was created. The analysis of the case study discovered: 1) at both the federal and state level, the executive has a strong ability to promote an agenda; 2) most of the federal key players identified by Kingdon (2003) have an equal state level counterpart; 3) state level special interest groups did not function effectively at blocking or changing the policy; 4) compromise is one of the most effective tools for thwarting a group’s ability to block an agenda; 5) committee and sub-committee chairs are noted as the most effective in stopping or changing a promoted policy; 6) by using recombination and mutation, policy makers can refute research that is adversarial to the policy; 7) careful framing of ideas makes it possible to hide an agenda. The study recommends further research in the area of special interest and legislative coalition formations.